Fstoppers Answers - How Do You Market To Social Media?

Each week on Fstoppers Answers, we answer a question asked by the photography community. This week, we were asked - "How do you market to social media? (When marketing your photography on social media, is it more effective to always be trickling out content constantly, or less frequently but higher quality and more content at once. For example, if I do a shoot with a model, should I post a photo a day, or a set a week?)"

Sarah WilliamsStaff Writer | Wedding Photographer

In our marketing to social media we focus more on quality. We only post one photo from a set as a preview. Then the blog will usually go live a week later for sessions, and about two months later for weddings. With the blog link, it also has a picture that gets posted to social media. So the photo gets posted with the link in the description. Facebook doesn't treat straight links with the best algorithms, so we try to work around it. This also allows us to tag our clients in the photos and then their friends and family can see the full blog posts without bugging our clients. Most of our blogs tell a story since we are lifestyle photographers so showing them off one by one isn't the best for our product. We try to post about every three days because we boost our posts and they tend to stick around in feeds for a couple days. We don't want people to be smothered. If we have a lot of down time, say between July and August where we typically don't shoot much due to horribly hot weather, we will show off one more from a wedding like a shot from the reception or something we don't post often.

For me it really depends on the platform. In some platforms I feel like I can post more content (including low-quality work and BTS), and in some platforms I feel like I need to be more calculated with what I post. On my Facebook Page I try to post just a small sample of my work - maybe 1 photo from each shoot I do. Posting too much on Facebook can become annoying for followers which can lead to having people unfollow you, or just ignore you. On platforms like Instagram and twitter I feel the freedom to post more content - even things I shoot with my iPhone. I see those platforms as more of a BTS look at what I do. On none of my public/pro accounts I post full albums - It's always just 1 or 2 sample photos.

Creating a audience who is invested in what you do is no easy feat. To do so, you need to be consistent and interesting, one or the other won't do. Spreading out your big posts (maybe one a week) will keep those consistent and you can fill the in-between with smaller posts of images or little anecdotes from your life that connect your audience to your human side. The work that you post will create an audience who appreciates what you create and posting your thoughts and personal updates will create an audience who appreciates who you are as a person. That combination can grow an audience who is fully invested to what you do.

I've been pretty inconsistent when it comes to pushing out my social media marketing messages this year. I've gone from not doing much and waiting to push out "finished product" to just doing more of a slow but steady stream of my work, including WIP, candid stuff and behind the scenes, and that's because i want to connect and engage more with people. This approach is more aligned to my personality and how I work, and I feel our social media / marketing messages should be a reflection of who we are. A slow and engaging trickle of your work, showing your true personality and character feels right to me.

I never post more than one thing a day, and often will go days, sometimes weeks without posting to my business page on Facebook. I do this simply because I try not to spam my viewers with too much content. Sometimes, when posting multiple photos to a gallery, a lot of the photos will get ignored because of over saturation. With other outlets, such as Instagram and Twitter, I post far more freely.

As always, we encourage you to add your responses in the comments below. Also, if you have a question you'd like to see discussed, feel free to ask it in the comments below and it may be featured next week on Fstoppers Answers.

Zach Sutton is an award-winning and internationally published commercial and headshot photographer based out of Albuquerque, NM. His work highlights environmental portraiture, blending landscapes and scenes with portrait photography. Zach is also an Editor for Fstoppers and writes for various publications on the topic of photography and retouching.